Julian: A Novel by Gore Vidal Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Julian: A Novel
Book Review: Brilliant Multi-Layered Storytelling
Summary: 5 Stars
My first Gore Vidal novel, and absolutely NOT my last.
I rarely have time to read as much as I like, but over the last week and a half I have carved time out at all hours of the day to get back to this book. I am a fan of history and historical fiction, and this is the good stuff without doubt.
Other reviews will give you the book report summary of plot and device, but I am here to tell you that the layers of commentary in this book were breathtaking. Vidal's personality seeps up through every page so subtly that on many occassions I found myself doing, in essence, double-takes: turning back a page or two and thinking, "Hang on... did he just?" and inevitably, the commentary, the literary slight of hand, the double meaning, and the three and four layer references I suspected were all there. I can only guess how many I may have missed.
As you know by now, this book is about the death of a king. The life and times of a leader who was dedicated to rejuvinating a divided country. A man whose mission required the unification of a nation divided along religious and political lines. It is the story of a leader who was assasinated after holding power for just three short years.
Vidal ends his novel with this:
April 1959 - 6 January 1964, Rome
This is a reference, I am sure, to the period during which he wrote it. It is also a reference to the dating of Julian's journal entries. But I believe this date range, specifically its terminus, serves another, typically subtle, purpose. It is a reference to another historical leader; one who strove to reinvigorate a faded empire, one who inspired similar division in his country, and one who met a similar, tragic end. I believe that this book is a farewell of sorts to John F. Kennedy.
Read it. It's amazing.
Book Review: Carefully Researched; A Compelling Narrative
Summary: 5 Stars
Gore Vidal's "Julian" is one of those rare historical novels that is not only meticulously researched but also absorbing. The author has read his ancient sources, including the fourth-century historian, Ammianus Marcellinus and the writings of the Emperor Julian and his contemporaries, very carefully. "Julian", in fact, makes an excellent supplement to a university course on the Late Roman Empire.
Mr. Vidal breathes life into the remote statues and the hieratic mosaics of the period; his descriptions of the rigid court etiquette in the age of Constantine are especially vivid. The author also takes us to the regions of the Empire--e.g., Antioch, Pergamon, Athens; Milan, Ravenna; Autun and Paris--that the city of Rome eclipses in most works focusing the Roman Empire from Augustus to Hadrian. Mr. Vidal's characterization of Julian, the last of Constantine's dynasty, is laced with charm and humor (His protagonist, who, in real life wrote a treatise satirizing his critics, entitled "The Hatred of Beards," continually alludes to his scraggly beard.). The novel, set between the years 331-363, reflects the fact that during the fourth century of our era, Christianity was by no means a "done deal," the Temple of Sarapis at Alexandria with its great medical school, for instance, being closed by Theodosius' decree only in 385.
The book is especially valuable in that it clarifies the central issues of a divided empire, including the religious, philosophical, and military problems as well as those of the imperial succession. Readers who are not historically inclined, however, ought to understand that chapter one, which purports to be a correspondence between the Sophists Priscus and Libanius, is a preface that necessarily establishes the historical background. Once they have begun reading chapter two--the "Memoirs of Julian Augustus"--they will become swept up in a riveting narrative as well as a fascinating recreation of the turbulent late Roman Empire.
Book Review: Delightfully bitchy and irreverent as always ...
Summary: 5 Stars
Gore Vidal is very bitchy, as always, but so much fun.This is Vidal's chronicle of the fourth century of the Christian era. It was during this period that much of the theology and doctrine of what we now call "Christianity" emerged. Christianity is shown to be a synthesis of a number of cults that were thriving in antiquity, with some Greek philosophy thrown in, together with a measure of Roman administration and a little marketing genius from Paul of Tarsus.
The emperor Julian, known to historians as "the Apostate," is portrayed sympathetically: He is less an enemy of the new cult, than a pluralist, who neither favored religion nor attacked it, but who was drawn to classical secular civilization and philosophy -- even as he saw these things crumbling all around him. Vidal is shrewd and observant in capturing the fawning and hypocrisy of diplomats and courtiers, the men on the make, drawn to the centers of power. (These observations were no doubt informed by Vidal's own experiences in the Kennedy White House -- which he visited often, until his forcible ejection by Robert Kennedy on one memorable occasion.)
Vidal's prose is elegant and musical, he is a genuine wit, highly intelligent, polemical, merciless and entertaining. This work is a small gem, a masterpiece of historical fiction, from our greatest living essayist and one of our finest living American writers of any kind.
Book Review: Fiction is the Key Word
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is nothing more than the typical postmodern and revisionist excrement coming from Vidal. In response to the below reviewer, Vidal is no Tolkien. He created beautiful stories with an optimistic outlook on humanity. Vidal shows us a cynical world where up is down and right is wrong. There is one similarity between the two, both created worlds that never existed in reality.
Julian the Apostate might not have been the villian of Christian history, but he was not the sainted leader of Vidal. Julian did not want religious tolreance, he persecuted the Christians and refused to let them teach their religion. His pomposity and extravagance (he sacrificed thousands of animals at one time) alienated his own pagan allies. While his victory in Gaul was impressive, his invasion of Persia was a disaster because of his own incompetence. He was murdered while on retreat back to Roman territory. Most reputable historians agree it was his own soldiers who did it because he was so disliked by them.
Christianity was not responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire. This discredited idea goes back at least 200 hundred years to Edward Gibbon. The Roman Empire began to collapes in the second century AD. In fact, if it weren't for Christian monks preserving the knowledge of antiquity we would have lost much more. Finally, Vidal fails to mention that the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire in the East, lasted another thousand years and was a fusion of Christianity and Hellenism.
Book Review: Flawlessly executed historical novel
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a novelization of the history of Roman emporer Julian Augustus. Raised a Christian, he turned his fascination with Hellenism into policy when he became emporer. This novel is presented as Julian's own memoir with commentary by his teacher and frequent companion Priscus and compiled by influential teacher Libanius. The final chapters are Julian's private notes with explanations by Priscus.
The biggest fear I had going in was that a historical novel would end up being like fan fiction where stories created from whole cloth are set with the main figures as the characters. It was almost a shock to find that Vidal stayed as close to the historical record as possible except for a couple very clearly explained points (mostly about Priscus being with Julian in Persia when he was in fact not). Rather than fiction, it was history come to life.
So much better is this style of presentation of history than the dry droning of Scullard that I am impelled to find other historical novels to compare. Is Vidal's success with Julian due to his genius, or is the format conducive to gripping narrative? I want to find that out for myself.
The interplay between the two haughty teachers is hilarious, with Libanius the compiler always getting the last word on the grumpy Priscus. Libanius is asking Priscus to provide Julian's memoir manuscript and Priscus is injecting his notes and comments throughout the text. Libanius reacts to both the text and Priscus' notes with interjections of his own. The interchange where Priscus mocks Mithraism and Libanius condemns him is one of the funniest points in the story. They never hold back when attacking each other in the text, but in their personal correspondence they are as polite as can be. This dichotomy is well used by Vidal to squeeze all sorts of humor out of these two old men.
For anyone unfamiliar with the history of Julian, the story is also somewhat of a whodunit with Julian's murder explained early on but the perpetrator only revealed in the last couple pages. The underlying current driving the story towards the treachery provides a solid base upon which the various subplots and story arcs are placed.
I am again turned on to ancient Roman history. This book was a breath of fresh air compared to the stifling dreariness of Scullard's history texts. Though not "pure" history, Vidal's Julian is a remarkable work of history that compares well with McCullough's chatty histories. I recommend this book to anyone. It's one of the best books I've read this year.